The worlไd’s most economically fragile developed nations are having an especially rough time lately. The 2008 crash continues to be felt in Greece💧. Falling oil prices have hit Petro States Russia and Venezuela especially hard. The Ukraine has suffered as a relatively young government fights with Russia and tries to manage runaway inflation.

Greece

No Eurozone country has suffered more since the crash of 2008 than Greece. Employment has fallen  since then, with more than 1 million jobs lost; household income dropped by ; and investment and consumption are , according to the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. In October, . The ratio of central government debt to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gross domestic product hit by the third quarter of 2014.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Deflation is a very real threat༒, with the country suffering and .

The✤ banking sector is weak. Banking outflows were weekly in mid-February, and a report warned that Greek banks would run out of collateral in .

The January 2015 by the left-wing Syriza party set the country up fo🐷r a showdown with creditors. That reckoning was postponed in February 2015 when the government and Eurozone finance ministers agreed to a four-month extension of bailouts, and Greece promised to crack down on tax evasion and corruption.

Russia

Falling , soaring inflation, international sanctions due to conflict with Ukraine, and skittish foreign investors continue to pummel the Russian economy. The rouble is . Inflation rose  in January. The World Bank’s December 2014 baseline projection, its most recent, was that Russia’s real GDP would contract by  in 2015. Not surprisingly, the Compoﷺsite Leading Indicators has .

A dependence on oil exports, barriers to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:foreign direct investment, and continued state control stumbling blocks. Soaring inflation, as well as President Vladimir Putin’s ban on food from sanctioning countries, means Russians may spend half their income on this year. The February murder of Putin critic Boris Nemtsov and the of Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, about a hedge fund manager’🌊s baཧttles with Putin’s government, mean are unlikely to reverse.  

Ukraine

Russia’s March 2014 sent Ukraine into a full-blown financial crisis. The IMF projected a  contraction in GDP for 2014, but the country’s top central banker told reporters that the actual decline was probably . Its currency, the hryvnia, was the in 2014, with declines so precipitous that the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:central bank temporarily in February 2015, before quickly reversing itself. In March 2015, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to  in an effort to control hyper-i♐nflation, 

Reserve losses, deposit withdrawals, currency depreciation, and loan deterior🤪ation continue to add to . The IMF, which projected that 2015 inflation would climb to 14%, committed to a loan package to Ukraine on February 12, 2015.

Venezuela

Declining oil prices have been devastating for Venezuela. The IMF forecasts that its economy will decline by in 2015, calculating that ꦉeach $10 decline in oil prices worsens Venezuela’s trade balance by 3.5% GDP. A large share of public spending coming from oil revenues and domestic gasoline prices near zero any revenue from domestic sales.

The centr🐲al bank said in December 2014 that GDP had contracted i💛n each of the first three quarters by 4.8%, 4.9% and 2.3%. Twelve-month inflation reached 63.6% in November, the highest in the Americas.

The Bottom Line

Barring a sharp spike in oil prices, which would help Russia and Venezuela, turning arou🌱nd the economy in all four countries will be a year🍌s-long challenge.